How to take notes about calls and file them in Outlook with the call audio attached How to take notes about calls and file them in Outlook with the call audio attached
The following steps show you how to easily enter notes about calls, during and after each call, and automatically file the notes away along with the call audio for future reference. The notes are stored as a standard Outlook item (i.e. like an email), and the audio is captured as an MP3 file and attached to the item. (These steps assume you have Outlook installed – see Skylook prerequisites for details).
1. If you don’t already use Skype, download and install it from here. If you don’t already have a headset or a webcam, grab one in our store.
2. If you don’t already have Skylook, download and install it from here.
3. Start Outlook. If you are running Skylook for the first time, you will see the Skylook licensing wizard and the Skylook Welcome wizard. Follow the prompts to ensure you have Skylook set up the way you want.
4. Start a phone call or PC-to-PC call, either from Outlook or directly from the Skype application. (This procedure still works for calls that you do not start from within Outlook).
5. The Skylook call window will appear at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen:
6. Click “Enter Notes about the Call” – the window will expand to look like this:
7. Enter a subject and some notes. (NOTE: you can close or minimize the window during the call without losing your notes, and without stopping call recording. To make the call window visible again, right-click the Skylook icon in the tray and choose the “Display Call Window” option).
8. Complete the call. The call window will stay open to allow you to enter some final notes.
9. The subject and the notes are automatically saved. Go to the “Skylook Conversations” folder in Outlook – there will be an item for your call, containing the attached recording along with the notes. To view your notes, click the new email inside your Skylook Conversations folder in Outlook:
10. Open the new email to see your notes:
11. When another call is made, the call window will change to reflect details of the newer call. However, you can go back and change the notes on the first call at any time by selecting the item in the “Skylook Conversations” folder then choosing “Tools > Edit Subject and Notes” from the Skylook toolbar.
If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at skylook@skylook.biz for assistance.
I really don’t want to look like a total idiot to everyone else so will copy my response to that back onto here so it doesn’t look like such a stupid question as you are making it look. I know it’s meant to be in that folder, but since it’s not there it would be nice to see a picture of what I should be seeing so I can see exactly what it is that is missing!
“But they are not there. Can you give me a more detailed indication of where the notes should be, when I open the item from the Skylook Conversations folder it shows 3 lines of standard text for every call and the call recording attachment. Where are the notes meant to be? What do they look like? Are they an attachment to the item or should they be in the main text of the item? In other words, *where* within the Skylook conversations folder should they be? There is a nice picture of the item sitting in the folder on the website, but no picture of what the open item should look like so I can compare what I have to what it should look like. Unfortunately I don’t have an unedited example to send you of what I am getting because I have manually edited them all to insert the call notes I had put in the box, but basically every single one says “Get the recording transcribed to text and emailed back to you, Listen to the recording, Call +******** via Skype”
And *nothing else* regardless of what notes I have added to the call.
What am I supposed to be seeing when I open the item in this folder?
Hi Rose,
Thanks for getting in touch. Skylook saves your notes to the actual call item (the email) in the Skylook Conversations folder (by default) in your inbox. When another call is made, the call window will change to reflect details of the newer call. However, you can go back and change the notes on the first call at any time by selecting the item in the “Skylook Conversations” folder then choosing “Tools > Edit Subject and Notes” from the Skylook toolbar.
Thanks Rose. Was there anything else that I can help you with?
Jeremy Hague
The Skylook Team
So where are the notes supposed to be when you go to review them later? It would be nice if there was a screenshot of the *actual* example, not just a picture of the item sitting (closed!) in the Skylook folder. I can open the item, I can listen to the recording, I can look at the “last call” notes from my icon in the notification area, but when I make a new call the notes will vanish.
I too would purchase Skylook in a second if it could do what Kenneth proposes. The only way to do this (that I know of) is a setup using Virtual Audio Cable that is far too complex to be practical to use on a regular basis.
Hi Kenneth (comment 5),
Thanks for the suggestion.
We will add this to our list of possible future enhancements.
- Jeremy Hague
The Skylook Team
I would buy Skylook immediately, if you let me take my call notes in OneNote, so I can utilize the amazing notes/audio synchronization feature of that product.
I don’t want just notes and an MP3, but rather a combination that lets me hear what was being said at a particular point in the written notes, as well as indexed for full-audio searching… all of which can be done with OneNote and a microphone, but would be way cooler if you could use Skylook as the bridge to get Skype as an input to OneNote for recording.